Lake Washington winter smallies.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Aaron Christel on February 1, 2010 at 3:08pm

Spencer, the basics are to drag a 1/2 or heavier football head jig with your favorite bait on it like a beaver, yamamoto hula grub, ect... or to drag a dropshot rig with some type of worm or minow immitation, like a roboworm. Most guys will just let the boat drift with the wind and drag large flats with rocky bottoms. That is the key, the fish are almost always on rocks or at the edges of rocks. If you can find a specific spot that seems to have fish on it, then stopping the drift and casting at that spot may bring you some success.

The three most important things this time of year in my opinion are:

1) Use your electronics to locate fish and areas that may hold fish. Look for isolated humps, rock piles, ect...

2) Keep your bait on the bottom. Those fish most likely are not going to come up from the bottom much at all to chase a bait.

3) Try different depths. Last year on Feb 2nd and 3rd, I caught fish on Washington in 23-25 feet. But, last week on another lake, I caught fish in 55-60 feet. You are gonna have to do some searching, and it may change daily, or even hourly.

I don't know if you have much knowledge of the lake, but a couple of community holes that regularly produce this time of year are the south end of the Island by the Mercer Island Club and out on Coleman point. Also, study a good topo map of the lake and you will find all kinds of points and flats that could hold fish, it's just a mater of going out and eliminating spots after you see areas with potential. Look for areas anywhere from 20 to 60 feet. They could be anywhere on any given day.

Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on February 1, 2010 at 11:39pm

I have only been doing the Winter Smallmouth thing for a short while, but my success has come from dragging 35-50ft of water. I look for rock and wood and a solid bottom. If you are in the rock I feel like you have a shot at getting bit and if there is isolated pieces of wood around even better. My best bait is a 1/2 football head jig and tube or creature type bait.

Permalink Reply by Eric DeLay on February 2, 2010 at 9:43am

I found it difficult (but not impossible) to shove a football head up my tube so I use the internal weights from Provider Tackle. When you are there you should check out their tubes too, they make some awesome colors.
http://providertackle.com/

Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:

I fish mostly a drop shot rig on isolated wood structure. I catch most of my fish on hard sand or just hard bottom in general with isolated wood. I fish this as close to vertical as I can. A structure element such as a breakline dropping off into deeper water seems to help as well. I have caught more fish with a sniper snub during the winter than any other. The second producer for me is a bass pro flipping tube with a 1/2 oz football head shoved inside. This usually gets the nod if I decide to drag a larger area.
The best colors for me have been green pumpkin pepper orange flake. For the most part I would spend most of my time searching the 35 to 45 foot level, it seems to be the most consistent.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on February 2, 2010 at 7:17pm

Spencer, we at the Western Bass Club will be on Lake Washington this Saturday holding our monthly Fish-In, you're more then welcome to fish it with us.

Permalink Reply by Eric DeLay on February 2, 2010 at 9:19pm

That is sound advice Craig. Lubing the tube really cuts down on the friction.

Craig Taylor said:

I have this problem with the smaller tubes. When I fish them like Ron mentioned I usually am fishing them in hard wind and go with the bigger tubes too. One thing I always do to make the footballs go in easier is I lube the footballs with smelly jelly or something like that. When I started doing it I began to not tare as many tubes.

Eric DeLay said:

I found it difficult (but not impossible) to shove a football head up my tube so I use the internal weights from Provider Tackle. When you are there you should check out their tubes too, they make some awesome colors.
http://providertackle.com/

Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:

I fish mostly a drop shot rig on isolated wood structure. I catch most of my fish on hard sand or just hard bottom in general with isolated wood. I fish this as close to vertical as I can. A structure element such as a breakline dropping off into deeper water seems to help as well. I have caught more fish with a sniper snub during the winter than any other. The second producer for me is a bass pro flipping tube with a 1/2 oz football head shoved inside. This usually gets the nod if I decide to drag a larger area.
The best colors for me have been green pumpkin pepper orange flake. For the most part I would spend most of my time searching the 35 to 45 foot level, it seems to be the most consistent.

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on February 3, 2010 at 7:45am

Hit Washington yesterday. What a beautiful day to be on the water. Running shoes, no gloves and only a hoodie to stay warm. Went with a buddy John Greer ( boooohhhhh), and we managed 5 and John also got a huge cutthroat. Took 3 of the smallies to Lauren the UW grad student for her research. Fish were deep today, 48 to 55ft.

Mark

Permalink Reply by Tim Vreeburg on February 3, 2010 at 8:47am

I was out on Lake Sammamish on Monday and caught three smallies in 50-55 feet of water. The waters surface temp was 46 degrees, curious if anyone would know what the water temp is on the bottom where these fish were caught at the 50 foot depth?

Tim

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on February 3, 2010 at 12:56pm

Tim,
I have had my underwater camera down in the winter and found water temps as low as 37 and high as 41. Surface temps yesterday were 44.5 to 46.9. I think that it has very little to do with the bite. They eat when they get hungry. Just in the winter it's not as often.
Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

I was out on Lake Sammamish on Monday and caught three smallies in 50-55 feet of water. The waters surface temp was 46 degrees, curious if anyone would know what the water temp is on the bottom where these fish were caught at the 50 foot depth?

Tim

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on February 3, 2010 at 12:57pm

No, it's that the 4lb er' seen the options, small rainbow trout or crawdad, it choose wisely.

John G said:

Maderos forgot to say I had big fish a 3.2 SM till last pass of the day I get a bump & seconds later he hooks up with a 4.3 SM YOU stole my fish man.

Permalink Reply by Tim Vreeburg on February 3, 2010 at 4:17pm

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I guess my question is why are the fish so deep this time of year, I thought maybe the water was a bit warmer at this depth than the surface. They may also be eating and staying near what is available this time of year, sculpin and crayfish?

Tim

Mark Maderos said:

Tim,
I have had my underwater camera down in the winter and found water temps as low as 37 and high as 41. Surface temps yesterday were 44.5 to 46.9. I think that it has very little to do with the bite. They eat when they get hungry. Just in the winter it's not as often.
Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

I was out on Lake Sammamish on Monday and caught three smallies in 50-55 feet of water. The waters surface temp was 46 degrees, curious if anyone would know what the water temp is on the bottom where these fish were caught at the 50 foot depth?

Tim

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on February 3, 2010 at 6:20pm

Tim,
A greet example of yesterday was where I caught the 4lber. It's an isolated humped 500yds off shore. The top of the hump is in 34 feet. I have caught smallies there in Jan/Feb at the top of the hump. At 40ft on the sides and yesterday, I kept going deeper and deeper until I ran into some arches in 51 to 58ft. The 4lb'er came from 53. The fish move up and down the structure as necessary to feed and find there comfort zone for that particular day. We had good sun so they moved a little deeper in the day to probadly follow some bait around.

Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I guess my question is why are the fish so deep this time of year, I thought maybe the water was a bit warmer at this depth than the surface. They may also be eating and staying near what is available this time of year, sculpin and crayfish?

Tim

Mark Maderos said:

Tim,
I have had my underwater camera down in the winter and found water temps as low as 37 and high as 41. Surface temps yesterday were 44.5 to 46.9. I think that it has very little to do with the bite. They eat when they get hungry. Just in the winter it's not as often.
Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

I was out on Lake Sammamish on Monday and caught three smallies in 50-55 feet of water. The waters surface temp was 46 degrees, curious if anyone would know what the water temp is on the bottom where these fish were caught at the 50 foot depth?

Tim

Permalink Reply by Tag Watson on February 3, 2010 at 8:39pm

Amen

Jon Sessler said:

The real answer is ..... they are where you find them.

Mark Maderos said:

Tim,
A greet example of yesterday was where I caught the 4lber. It's an isolated humped 500yds off shore. The top of the hump is in 34 feet. I have caught smallies there in Jan/Feb at the top of the hump. At 40ft on the sides and yesterday, I kept going deeper and deeper until I ran into some arches in 51 to 58ft. The 4lb'er came from 53. The fish move up and down the structure as necessary to feed and find there comfort zone for that particular day. We had good sun so they moved a little deeper in the day to probadly follow some bait around.

Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I guess my question is why are the fish so deep this time of year, I thought maybe the water was a bit warmer at this depth than the surface. They may also be eating and staying near what is available this time of year, sculpin and crayfish?

Tim

Mark Maderos said:

Tim,
I have had my underwater camera down in the winter and found water temps as low as 37 and high as 41. Surface temps yesterday were 44.5 to 46.9. I think that it has very little to do with the bite. They eat when they get hungry. Just in the winter it's not as often.
Mark

Tim Vreeburg said:

I was out on Lake Sammamish on Monday and caught three smallies in 50-55 feet of water. The waters surface temp was 46 degrees, curious if anyone would know what the water temp is on the bottom where these fish were caught at the 50 foot depth?

Tim

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